Americans can now order an American-made tabletop humanoid for under $12,000

Meet Aria, Mila, Dave and Amar, the first four models to come out of Las Vegas-based humanoid company Realbotix. To make them more affordable than what consumers will likely have to pay for ambulatory humanoids for at least a few years, manufacturers have decided to focus on the top half.

Admittedly, locomotion and joints, along with degrees of freedom in digits, are a work in progress when it comes to humanoids, and make any potential consumer model much slower to reach the market and much more expensive than what Realbotix offers.

Basically, you will be able to reserve your choice of the four models, which as you will see are torsos without arms but with fantastic hair, so we will give it to them. For the $11,950 “tabletop” model, you’ll get exactly what it sounds like. It is a robot that will sit on top of a table or bench with which you can interact. Compared to the company’s projected price for a legged humanoid ($59,950), it’s actually a bargain, relatively speaking.

But besides the obvious limitations, there are some additional drawbacks. Right now, you’ll need to pay $199 to “reserve” a model of your choice. The company is not saying whether production is underway, except that this range, Echo, will be shown at CES 2027 in Las Vegas in January and hopes to begin fulfilling orders in early 2027.

Please note that only 225 tabletop models and 25 full-body humanoids will be produced for shipment next year.

There is also another drawback. Regardless of which model you choose, you’ll need to sign up for a monthly subscription to continue chatting with your new friend. That will cost you at least $19.99 a month, giving you 10 hours of talk time.

Now, I’m not much of a talker, but when I had pets I definitely spent more than 20 minutes a day talking nonsense to them. So keep in mind that you will have a time limit if you want to spend the entire month. And these things are surprisingly addictive and, like LLMs and other AIs, staying engaged is key. So it’s not really a lot of time to spend money, nor do we know the software and AI inner workings of the Echo model.

Like any subscription these days, there is a sliding scale. A Plus membership for $39.99 gives you 40 hours a month and unlocks more “expressive” voices and many different languages. And accents. Do accents change if people invest so much in AI? Besides my absurd AI pets, I think I’d prefer my AI to be silent.

The top subscription tier is known as Enterprise, costs $199 for 100 hours of talk, and gives you more freedom to create your own AI characters and other add-ons.

The Echo models come with a mix of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, so there’s a chance they could become more than just their short bio, which, to be fair, I’ve judged harshly. Both women and men seem to have been imagined by men for men. (Realbotix, happy to be wrong, let me know as I have a few more questions as well.)

“Echo robots represent a major step forward in Realbotix’s mission to improve human life through social robots,” said Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Realbotix. “By focusing on companionship, education and well-being, we are creating companions who support, educate and care for people in meaningful ways.”

In terms of hardware, the head and face can be moved and each of the four models is trained with different personalities. However, since there are none available yet, we will have to rely on Realbotix for almost everything.

It’s US delivery only and the company expects the table friends to ship (at an additional cost) in the second half of 2027.

However, you will get your $199 deposit back if the company fails to complete production of the robots. But if you change your mind after sending that cash, Realbotix is ​​explicit that it’s non-refundable.

The website has their personalities and basic characteristics listed; Basically, women are good listeners and caregivers, men are resourceful or “stable” and interested in wellness and healthcare.

“We don’t replace people, we help them,” the company says. “Echo is a warm, capable presence that people really want to have around them. That’s why our robots look, sound, and connect like people, not cyborgs.”

Defining “cyborg” is a rabbit hole that I’ll let you go down.

So while you may not find someone to play with D&D Con, it seems like everyone is ready to be podcast co-hosts. The site states that these models aim to “address the global loneliness epidemic in an affordable way.” Since $11,000 (and my region) excludes me, some new plants and GTA 6 It will have to be enough.

But if you’re interested in learning more, check out the quartet on the company’s website.

Source: Realbotix